Of being possessed and being thankful.

I honestly think there's some supernatural force roaming around in my area. Today, my front karaoke lady neighbour was screaming at the top of her lungs in Malay. Heh, she usually does that in Chinese. I secretly think she is possessed.

But then again...when she talks to the cleaner lady, she speaks in Malay anyway.

Maybe she isn't possessed after all.

I am still afraid of falling asleep.

But some random person texted me this.

Hero, now that you are free
You have no need to fear
so go out and find your smile
Like a candle in the stream
May you float away
Like a feather on the breeze
May you blow away.

Heh, the one who would still call me 'sunshine thambi' despite my random bouts of paranoia.

And another person told me to think of some hotness before I go to bed, in hope they would keep me safe. This person even told me to think of the gayboy to calm my nerves. Honestly, he makes my frayed nerves get even more frayed than it already is. Hmmph.

I feel better now, but yeah, I'm still paranoid about actually sleeping at night.

*****

Yesterday, me and Xin Rou went to Ampang as part of our 20-hour voluntary placement assignment. We went swimming. I didn't expect to meet children suffering from Down Syndrome or autism. The one thing I noticed was that those kids were really happy to see us, they kept waving at us and saying 'hello' to us. I felt like a celebrity. Haha. I was quite worried I couldn't talk to them and that I wouldn't be able to handle them, given my limited amount of patience. But no, they were okay and they really liked us. One of them liked Xin Rou a lot, he kiss her head, not once, but THREE times. Hahaha! Just had to say that because I found that amusing.

Apparently, I didn't have proper swimming attire so I wasn't allowed in the big pool. My mother didn't wash my shorts-lah...she only washed them today! Well, it wasn't bad because I got to play with the other kids in the other pool. One of them actually had fun splashing water all over me, I splashed water back on her.

(no one is allowed to ask anything about the Tiago Mendes look-alike)

I had an opportunity to talk to one of the teachers, she told me that some of the kids are quite young, some of them were in their twenties. One of them had fits. At that point, I realised how lucky I am. They may seem not normal to us, but really, they're perfectly normal to me. Now I realise why Dr House said he was envious of that kid who had Asperger's. It's the truth.

After that, we changed into our normal clothes and headed back to the centre. Well, we had a bit of problem there. You see, one of the girls refused to leave the area. She just sat there, refusing to get up. It took about 5 of us, including 3 teachers to carry her. We even tried coaxing her to get up by buying her ice-cream, but she refused to budge. Our last resort was to drag her, which resulted in me having a cut on my finger. We had no alternative but to call some of the club workers to carry her. They carried her onto a trolley, because she was too heavy for us to carry. The van driver coaxed her to come up and meet her friend. She got up and walked and sat in front of the van's steps. Then she got up and we went back to the centre.

We didn't realise that the girl's mother was the principal of the centre. Now I see why she is committed to the cause. She told me before that "at the end of the day, they're also someone's child, so we love them as our own child". How true.

I have a great sense of respect for teachers who are teaching kids with disabilities. It takes a lot of patience and dedication to carry out their jobs. I have a higher sense of respect for mothers as well, especially the centre's principal. Motherhood is no easy task, especially if you learn that your child has a disability. It takes a whole load of tolerance, patience and love to care for your child.

Can't wait to go back there again. I promise I will upload some pics soon. They go swimming every Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Fridays, they go horse-riding! Oh My God, I wouldn't mind going for that! I've always wanted to ride a horse.

We cry, we learn,
We think about the things we're crying for,
We try, we burn,
And then we try and try again,
When the troubles come,
When we're not so strong
We need to breathe to carry on,
Still looking for pieces of heaven.


How perfectly true.